Nearly every effect below comes from one of three things: a curved surface that guides sound, a shape that focuses it, or a surface that refuses to reflect it at…
A compass needle points north. Almost everyone knows this and almost nobody knows what it means.
It does not point at the North Pole. The geographic North Pole is a…
There are a small number of biological rules that hold across every vertebrate: a spine, a heart, and haemoglobin to move oxygen around the body.
The last one has exactly…
The photographs are among the most striking images in science: a column of ash rising into the dark, with lightning threading through it.
The informal name is a dirty thunderstorm,…
Almost every design feature on an aircraft has a reason, and most of them are invisible to passengers. The window shape is the exception: it is the one piece of…
There is a paradox at the centre of the Amazon that took a long time for outsiders to notice.
The rainforest is the most productive terrestrial ecosystem on Earth, and…